Adjustable shelf for refrigerators or the like



July 6, 1937. L. s. CHADWICK 2,086,118

ADJUSTABLE SHELF FOR REFRIGERATORS OR THE LIKE Filed Nov. 22, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet l M INVENTOR. f BY in 2. 25

M ,Gm-vk Wind ATTORNEYS July 6, 1937. s. CHADWICK ADJUSTABLE SHELF FOR REFRIGERATORS OR THE LIKE Filed Nov. 22, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR, Lu 2.90M

ATTORNEYJ.

Patented July 6, 1937 UNITED STATES ADJUSTABLE SHELF FOR REFRIGERATORS OR THE LIKE Lee S. Chadwick, Shaker Heights, Ohio, assignor to Perfection Stove Company, Cleveland, Ohio,

a corporation of Ohio Application November 22, 1935, Serial No. 51,128

' 3 Claims.

This invention is an adjustable shelf for refrigerators and similar enclosures in which it is necessary or desirable to alter the spacing of the shelves from time to time to accommodate objects of different heights between them.

The purpose of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive construction affording a wide range of adjustment and facilitating the accomplishment thereof.

A typical and thoroughly practical embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof wherein Fig. 1 is a front elevation, Fig. 2 a fragmentary plan view, and Fig. 3 a side elevation of my improved shelf; Fig. 4 is a front elevation of a refrigerator incorporating the invention, and Figs. 5, 6, and 7 are sectional details through a wall of the refrigeration compartment or enclosure and theadjacent end of the shelf, showing, respectively, the shelf adjusted to three different elevations.

According to the present embodiment of the invention, the shelf, designated generally by the letter A, consists of a rectangular frame I, made of a stiff, heavy gauge wire, and cross bars 2 that are relatively narrow in plan but are of a depth substantially equal to the diameter of the wire from which the frame I is constructed, the opposite ends of the cross bars being suitably secured to the opposed portions of the frame I with the top and bottom edges of the bars substantially flush with the corresponding sides of the frame thereby to avoid a marginal obstruction to the sliding of objects onto or off the shelf regardless of which side of the shelf is up. The ends of the frame I constitute bearing portions a.

A wide and relatively shallow U-shaped member 3, preferably constructed of material or stock identical with that from which the frame I is made, is secured to the underneath side of the frame (as the same is positioned in Fig. 1) a short distance from each end thereof. The straight central section of each member 3 constitutes a bearing portion a, and the same is offset laterally into the vertical plane of the adjacent bearing portion a.

While the invention is applicable to different classes of enclosures, I have shown it in Fig. 4 as incorporated in a refrigerator B. The side walls 5 of the refrigeration compartment 6 are provided with shelf supporting means or ledges b, the corresponding means or ledges on the opposed walls being in the same horizontal plane, and the adjacent ones of each wall have their shelf supporting surfaces spaced apart preferably three times the vertical distance between the bearing portions 0. and a. of the shelves A. The shelf supporting means or ledges b, as best shown in Figs. 5 to 7, are desirably formed of outward depressions of the sheet metal from which the walls 5 are constructed, and, in a direction from front to rear, are approximately the length of the bearing portions a and a.

As illustrated in Figs. 4 to '7, each shelf A may be arranged between opposed shelf supporting means or ledges b in three different positions: first, as shown in detail in Fig. 5, with its ends that constitute the bearing portions a resting upon said means or ledges; secondly, as detailed in Fig. 6, in a more elevated position with its bearing portions a resting upon the shelf supporting means or ledges b; and, thirdly, in an inverted position at a level below its first elevation with its bearing portions 0. again contacting the shelf supporting means or ledges b.

Inasmuch as the shelf supporting means or ledges b of each side wall 5 are spaced apart a distance corresponding approximately to three times the vertical spacing of the bearing portions 0. and a. of a shelf, the shelves may be adjusted in the manner above described to positions equally spaced apart between the high position of the top shelf and the low position of the bottom shelf.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. An invertible shelf comprising a rectangular frame, and relatively wide U-shaped members or rod-like material having their ends rigidly secured to opposed portionsof the same side of the frame at locations inset from the ends thereof, the central portion of each U-shaped member being substantially parallel with and offset into the vertical plane of the adjacent end of the frame.

2. An invertible fabricated shelf consisting of an open frame, cross members disposed between and connected at their opposite ends to the opposed sides of the frame, the top and bottom surfaces of said members being substantially flush with the corresponding faces of the frame, and relatively wide U-shaped members constructed of round wire having their ends securedto opposed portions of the same face of the frame at locations inset from the ends thereof, the central portion of each U-shaped member being substantially parallel with and offset into the vertical plane of the adjacent end of the frame.

3. An invertible fabricated shelf consisting of an open frame, cross members disposed between and connected at their opposite ends to the opposed sides of the frame, and relatively wide U- shaped members constructed of wire having their ends rigidly secured to opposed portions of the same face of the frame at locations inset from the ends thereof, the central portion of each U-shaped member being substantially parallel with and offset into the vertical plane of the adjacent end of the frame.

LEE S. CHADWICK.

CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION.

Patent No. 2,086, 118. July 6,1957.

LEE S. CHADWICK.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patentrequiring correction as follows: Page 1, second column, line 27, claim 1, for the word "or" read of; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 51st day of August, A. D. 1937.

(Seal) Acting Comm i s s i c e r o i lf atents. 

